Missing
by Burg Gurl
Summary: Everyone has graduated Hogwarts and have all moved on with their lives. Voldemort is dead and the Ministry is rebuilt. What happens when one of their best aurors is kidnapped? What will his wife do when she finds out? BZHG DH compatable. R&R! PLEASE!
1. Chapter 1 The Missing Auror

-Missing- 

**Chapter 1: The Missing Auror**

"I'm sorry, Hermione, but Blaise has gone missing."

Harry had asked her to come to his office from her home in Hogsmede, but she had never expected this to happen. Especially since it was _her_ Blaise.

"No Harry, you must be mistaken. Blaise went out on a routine job for the Ministry this morning, promising to see me at home tonight. Blaise always keeps his promises. Especially when they're to me." She said, tears quickly welling at the edge of her eyes. The tears only truly fell when Harry gave his friend of ten years, a note that he had received that morning.

_To: Minister Potter  
Ministry of Magic  
London_

Minister Potter,

We hereby inform you that we have captured the Auror Blaise Zabini.

In order for his safe return, you must quietly hand over management of your position as minister of magic. Instructions of what to do in order to do so quietly will arrive by owl at a later date.  
  
Pausing, she looked up from the letter. "How do we know for sure that they really have Blaise?"

"Continue reading the note," he replied solemnly.

_You are most likely thinking that we are lying, having caught the Ministry's best Auror. Well, we have caught him and to prove it, we have included a magical recording of Mr. Zabini's voice…_

When she looked up, quizzical look all over her paled face, she found Harry holding a very colorful version of a hand-held recorder to her. She took it and pressed the 'play' button, gasping in shock as she heard the plea from her husband to not give over to the Death Eaters and that he'd be okay; just don't give in just for him. Tears formed in her eyes as her husband's voice was suddenly cut off in the middle of him telling Hermione that he loved her.

"What are we going to do Harry? You can't turn over power; it will be like it was at the end of the 7th year with Voldemort." She exclaimed with earnest, forcefully wiping away unshed tears.

"I don't know, Hermione. Though whatever we decide to do, Blaise will be all right. He's our best Auror and he's smart. He'll find a way out." He assured his sobbing comrade, pulling her into a hug so she could cry on his shoulder like he'd done so many times in the past. "Everything will turn out alright, 'Mione. It always does."

But things wouldn't turn out OK on this occasion. Harry, Hermione and Ron (Head of International Games and Sports) decided to do as the Death Eaters wanted, all the while searching diligently for Blaise, to no avail.

The Death Eaters hadn't said that if they found out that they were looking for Blaise, they'd kill him, but there came a note along with the day's usual instructions that did.

_Minister Potter,  
We feel that our instructions are not being fulfilled to our wishes. We also have information that you have been sending people to look for Zabini. DISCONTINUE YOUIR SEARCH. If you send any more people, we will torture and kill said Auror._

Do not doubt us, minister. You know that we are good with our word.

"Harry, just what do they want, please? Blaise will be alright, just like you said." Hermione reassured him when he visited her the moment he received the letter.

"Are you sure Hermione? Death Eaters really do keep their promises when it comes to death and destruction. You've been so miserable with out him and you know I hate seeing you miserable." He told her, pleading look in his eyes and on his face.

"I'm sure. He's smart. Just look at it positively." She told him, knowing that the outlook looked dim, but trying to reassure herself just as well. 


	2. Chapter 2 The Bearded Man

Chapter 2: The Bearded Man

Three years passed with out so much as a whisper on the condition of her husband in the many letters Harry received that contained instructions.

On the three-year anniversary of his disappearance, Hermione was walking through the Entrance Hall to the Great Hall, slightly late for breakfast from staying up late, grading her 7th year's mid-term papers.

As she was coming to the door to the Great Hall, there came the crashing sound of a very large set of doors closing, the sound causing Hermione to nearly jump completely out of her skin.

The man that came through the door looked like a forty-year old wilderness man with his long, curly black beard and hair. From his hunched-over position, Hermione saw that he was tired and weak, so she moved over to him. As she approached him, she extended her hand. "Are you ok, sir? You look like you've seen the worse in life." She received a true shock when he finally looked up at her with his weary indigo eyes… they're the same color as my Blaise's… she said to herself. But she didn't finish her thought before all current in her head were erased by his need for her, for he had just fallen in a dead faint during her momentary loss of present thought.

She tried to pick him up, but she found that his thin, gaunt frame was still too heavy for her to carry, so she conjured a stretcher and floated him to the Hospital Wing.

When she reached the infirmary, she called for Ginny (the Hogwarts medi-witch for the past five years), "Ginny! Ginny come quick!"

"What's all the fuss, Hermione?" Echoed the voice of her old friend from the depths of the Hospital Wing.

"I found this man in the Entrance Hall just now and he seems in a bad sort, in need of your medical expertise."

"Alright," Ginny said as she came into view from behind a near by curtain. "Put him on this bed here and I'll have a look at him while you go to your class before your first years run amuck by tapping everything in the room, transfiguring it into unchangeable and unrecognizable items or animals." She said with a chuckle.

Hermione responded with her own smile and a laughed "OK" as she left for the seventh floor to take charge of her first year transfiguration class. When she'd gotten up to her class, restored calm and began her lessons about how to turn beetles to buttons, she got so immersed in her work that it came as a great surprise when the bell signaling the period over, rang.

"Alright, for your homework, I want one roll of parchment on the theory behind in-animate object transfiguration. I want it on my desk by Monday, no excuses!" She shouted at the retreating and groaning backs of her students. She'd just sat down at her desk, readying herself to grade some seventh year advanced transfiguration essays, when he thought she heard a faint voice calling her name, and then she realized that someone was indeed calling her name. It was coming from her private office fireplace.

"Oh my!" She exclaimed as she quickly leapt up from her desk, then running to her office to see a worried looking head of Ginny under her mantel.

"Hermione, I need to see you in the Hospital wing as soon as you possibly can. Do you have a class?"

"Not until later, why do you ask?"

"There's something you might want to see."

"Al…alright, I'm on my way..." Hermione answered quizzically.

With that, she got up off her knees and proceeded immediately to the Hospital Wing, where Ginny met her right outside the door.

"Ginny, what is so important that you couldn't tell me through the fire?" She asked, slightly winded from her rushed walk to the infirmary.

"That's why I'm meeting you outside. To warn you that you might want to prepare yourself, 'Mione. For what you are about to see will shock you," Ginny replied, placing a hand on the door handle to the hospital wing. "Are you ready?"

With a nod from the brunette, Ginny opened the door. Hermione was soon to find that Ginny was quite right to warn her of surprises that the door bared. When they entered the Hospital wing, they headed towards the far end of the ward where no one entering would disturb. When they stopped, Ginny reached for the drawn curtains, but turned to Hermione before opening them.

"Are you ready?" she asked again

"I guess, since I have no idea for what I'm supposed to be prepared for," Hermione replied, slightly annoyed.

"OK, but don't say I didn't warn you…"

When Ginny pulled the curtain away from around the bed, Hermione let out a gasp and had to reach for the bed to keep her standing.


	3. Chapter 3: The Reveal

Chapter 3: The Reveal

The person she'd brought in that morning wasn't the same "mountain man" as before. But that wasn't the shock. The real shock was finding Blaise sleeping in the Mountain man's stead.

"Is that? It…it can't be! The Death Eaters said he was dead…"

"Well it's him. I managed to talk to him for a bit after I shaved all that hair away. But he was so exhausted that he fell asleep again not five minutes after waking."

Watching Hermione as she stared at Blaise, forced Ginny to add, "I'll leave you alone, shall I?" 

Without waiting for a reply, Ginny whipped around, pulled the curtain around Hermione and Blaise for some privacy, and went to her office to speak to Headmistress McGonagall to tell her that Hermione might be missing her next class before lunch because she had unknowingly saved her husband.

After Ginny had left, Hermione found a chair and pulled it close to his bed so she could sit near him while holding his left hand with both of hers. She stared at him, making herself finally believe he was back and that it wasn't just some cruel dream (again).

What seemed like hours of staring off into space at his face later, she was brought back to earth by the feel of a hand on her left cheek.

"See something you like?"

"Every single time." She responded with a smile, tears forming in her eyes.

"What's wrong Hermione?" He asked, wiping away a tear from her cheek with his thumb.

"I never thought I would see you again. And now you're here, but it feels like a dream that my mind is torturing me with." She explained as she let go of his hand she'd been holding, her now free right hand moving to her other eye to wipe it clear of tears.

"If I were a dream, could I do this?" he asked as his right hand maneuvered behind her head to bring her to him in a tender kiss, which only Blaise could give.

"No…nope," she said, slightly light headed, "a dream definitely couldn't do that." Blaise laughed, but quieted when Hermione's look became serious.

"What happened, Blaise? You've been gone for three years."

Blaise sighed as he leaned back into his pillows, looking just as tired as when Hermione brought him to the infirmary.

"Well, as you obviously already know, Death Eaters captured me. But what they didn't tell you was that about a month after my capture, I managed to escape, I don't even know how I did it. They didn't tell you because they didn't want you or Harry to know that I had because then their leverage over you would be gone. 

"So between when I escaped and today, I wandered, lost. I had no wand, or else I would have aparated home in a heartbeat. But they took my wand from me and snapped it in half. 

"As I wandered around, I came to a town with people, so when I came across someone, I asked what the name of the city where I had been taken was. She said that the towns name was Roseburg. When I asked where Roseburg was, the lady just looked at me like I was completely nutter. But when I told her that I wasn't from around here, she softened enough to tell me that Roseburg was a medium sized city in a state called Oregon in the United States."

"They took you all the way to the United States? Why would they do that?"

"Who knows what goes on in a Death Eater's brain. Once I figured out which way was east, I started my long journey back to you. It took me about six months to get from Oregon to a place called Spartanburg, South Carolina. When I got there, I'd fallen ill and needed a place to go. Lucky for me, a man by the name of Justin Gwinn and his girlfriend Cassie Gibbs happened to find me lying on the ground in the park, very sick, as they went for a stroll. The nice people they were took me in to Cassie's house and nursed me back to health, which took about a week.

"When I was well enough to continue on, I asked them where I was and they replied by telling me that I was in Spartanburg, South Carolina and that the east coast was only about a two or three hours journey by vehicle. When I told them I had no money on me, Cassie reached into her purse and pulled a fair few pieces of paper that she called 'twenty-dollar bills'. 'There should be enough to get you to the coast.' She said. 'That may be enough for transportation, but he'll starve…' Justin added. So he reached into his wallet and pulled out a few notes that he called fifty's, saying, 'that should get you food long enough to make it to the coast. I thanked them profusely for their kindness and was on my way. Lucky enough, it did. And even with bit left over. But it wasn't enough to get me a boat ride over the ocean and I had no idea where the ministry was, where ever I was currently. If I remember right, I believe the place where I was called Cherla…cha…. something like that…"

"Charleston?" Hermione added, hoping her small study of geography years ago was still good.

"Yes that's the one. I was at the beach without a way of getting across. So I found a travel agency (with some help) and asked if there was a ferry across the ocean. Fortunately, there was a boat, but it cost so much money. Leaving sadly, I started losing hope of ever coming back to you," he said, removing a hand from Hermione's strong grip, to stroke her cheek with his right thumb, wiping a solo tear away.

"Your face kept me going, so I began my search for a job. My fortune continued by leading me from fast food job to department store clerk to dish washer at a fancy, 5-star restaurant. After about a year of floating from job to job, I had enough money to make my trip. But in that year of earning my way, the only boat that made that transatlantic trip, sank along with my hopes of getting back to you, until I found that my only option was to fly. I had to think about it." He added with a grimace.

"But then and there I decided that I was going to get over my fear of flying. So a 12-hour flight later, I was in London. When I got out of the terminal, I ran straight to the restroom, very air sick." He said, turning slightly red in the cheeks. 

"So that was just over a year, you were gone for three. What happened during the last two?" Hermione asked.

"Well…" he said, "when I emerged from the restroom…" he paused. "_They_ were waiting for me."

This news caused Hermione to cover her gasp, saying 'oh no' through her hands.

"Yes, Wormtail and his goons were waiting for me. I saw them and tried to escape, but they managed to knock me out, and when I woke, I found myself bound and gagged with a hood over my face.

_Flashback_

'You nearly got away Mr. Zabini. Luckily we were able to find you again, yes? Of course! We couldn't have you running off to the minister now could we? No, we were lucky enough to find you again. You shan't get away again, we'll make sure of that'

_End Flashback_

"The torturing they inflicted as horrible. I could set my watch by their timing, if I'd had one. Twice to three times a day they would come to bring stale bread, a tankard of ice cold water and a beating of some type."

By now, Hermione was silently crying, hearing of her husbands torment. "Oh Blaise! I wanted to continue searching, but they threatened to kill you if they heard that there were people looking for you. So we couldn't look any longer…"

"It's alright. I knew you would be trying to look for me. But they made sure that Harry did what they wanted.

"Anyways, everything calmed own. They were feeding me the same, but the torturing became less and less over the next several months, before they stopped completely. It was like they were distracted and forgot that I was their prisoner that they had to torture.

"That worked to my advantage. When they started coming only once a day, in the early morning usually. After about three months, once I had their schedule memorized, I decided that it was time to escape using any means necessary. If that meant risking my safety again, so be it.

"They must have thought that I'd given up escaping after two months. I was surprised when I managed to pry open the window that was about six feet above my head. When I got out, I was surprised yet again that there wasn't more guard. As I got used to the light, I found that I was in the middle of a large, rolling prairie, green grass as far as the eye could see, beginning at the foot of a large, tree covered hill with no civilization, save the house to which I had just come from. Still seeing no guard, I ran because I knew my life did depend on it if I didn't go far enough, fast enough. I ran and ran, not daring to look back. I ran until I got to the top of that near by hill I just told you about. Up there, I was able to see much farther. There, in the distance to the east, I saw a small village. So, I got off the hill and set a new course towards this little village, anxious for some relaxation. 

"This village was a true village. Small houses with straw roofs and little gardens in the front. From the looks of the buildings, this village was very old. My being favorable towards passersby, I caught the attention of a passing man and asked him what the name of the village was. He said it was called Godric's Hollow. That name, it had sounded so familiar, but I couldn't place my finger on it. So I thanked him and went to a near by inn, hoping that the innkeeper would be kind enough to give me a bit of food. Though the village was small, it still took me over an hour to find the inn because all the buildings looked alike.

"But finally, the confusion about my head, like a fog, lifted as I found the inn. There, the innkeeper was, indeed, kind enough to give me a fulfilling amount of food to quench my hunger. After I'd eaten my fill, I asked for the recent copy of the Daily Prophet. What I found as I read the stories astounded me. Corruption of our government; Harry letting prisoners free from Azkaban; and so much bad that I care not to reminisce. But as I continued to read, I came across Dumbledore's obituary saying how Severus Snape had murdered him. But in light of that tragedy, Professor McGonagall had been appointed Headmistress and that you, my love, had been asked to replace her as Transfiguration professor. I have to say that it was quite a surprise. But it made me happy that you continued to live in my absence."

"I had to keep myself busy to keep my mind off the fact that I thought I'd lost you. Every time I thought about the reality of what had happened, I'd dissolve in tears for hours." She told him, staring into his eyes, indigo to coffee brown.

"Oh, my darling Hermione. How I wanted to return to you! But as fates would have it, I couldn't."

"I know," she replied. Realizing he had been on the middle of his explanation of the past three years, she urged him to continue.

"Lets see, where was I? Ah yes, I was reading the paper about you. When I'd finished, I found a room to sleep for the night. The next day, I was off, continuing my journey like a Knight-errant in search of his lady fair. The only thing different was that a knight never had to watch over his shoulder, always watching for the men who were after him. In deed, my travels did slow in my need to go for a while then stop and hide then begin again, only to double back so they couldn't follow my trail easily. That slowed my travels to a mile per day. If I was lucky, I got two or three, but on an average, I got one. Even when I got sick again, I managed to go a mile a day. It was my love for you that kept me going.

"Through back tracking, hiding for hours on end, scrounging for food and sleeping in caves or under trees, I arrived in London a year later.

"Tired and weary, I rested in London for a few days before I searched for Diagon Ally. Three days of searching later, I found the Leaky Cauldron. That place may be dark and dingy, but it glimmered like a beacon of hope that I would see you again very soon. But alas, fate is a cruel mistress in the dealings of misfortune. Inside the inn, the goons who had been after me for over a year had found me out. I tried to leave before they noticed me, but one happened to be looking up and around from his purple, smoking drink and saw me. 'Hey you!' He'd also shouted at me to stop, but like I was about to be captured again. So I opened the door, waited till they got to the door, then slammed it in their faces, hoping and succeeding in causing them pain and allowing me more time to escape. When I'd stopped running for a bit I felt into my pockets and found the last twenty pounds from my accumulated funds. I hadn't stopped long before I heard shouts, which made me panic. Hailing a cab, I got in and told him to take me as far as twenty pounds would get me, as long as it got me there fast.

"That fare actually got me quite far. When the cab stopped, we were quite a ways outside of London, in the nearby farmlands. From there, I wasn't sure where I was supposed to go next, so I simply watched the taxi drive off in the distance. I sat there for a while wondering where to go next when I heard a train whistle. I turned to see where it was coming from. When I heard it again, I found the Hogwarts express, in all of its red glory, barreling down the tracks heading north. That glimmer of hope that I found in the Leaky Cauldron had returned in the form of a large steel mass. I ran to the tracks and practically collapsed on the top and kissed them in happiness." Blaise laughed out loud as the memory of him tripping and falling his way to the rails, slamming his face into the bars, re-emerged from his sub-conscience. But he wasn't about to tell her what really happened.

Once he calmed, even with Hermione giving him a 'you've-gone-crazy' look, he continued, "that's what I did for these last two months, walked down the tracks, killed small animals and cooked the on any fire I could make. When it would rain, I'd find berries. But when it was raining and the barriers were scarce, I'd…I'd eat bugs and worms." Both he and Hermione cringed. "But I had to do whatever it took to survive long enough to see you again, and if it meant eating something as vile as a worm, so be it.

"It seemed like forever, but I finally saw the beautiful turrets of Hogwarts castle in the distance. I stopped when I did, and just stared. And excitement I hadn't felt since you came back from the war alive, ignited in me along with a newly found energy. That energy fueled me enough to start me running again. I ran and ran until I got up to the castle. I couldn't believe it; I'd made it back. I couldn't believe it so much so that I ran my hands over the door, not only to feel their real-ness, but to also hold me up.

"After I had established it was truly real, I pushed the door open, and, well, you know the rest."

"I'm so glad you're back, but you need your rest." Hermione said as she placed a kiss on the hand she was holding, then another kiss on his mouth.

As she got up to leave, she turned back to him and said, "Get some rest dear, I'll come and visit you after classes."

When she left, Ginny re-emerged to continue care for him. "She's right, you know. You need your rest. You can go home tonight though."

"Is she alright?" Blaise asked as his eyes never left the door through which Hermione had left.

"She will be. It's just a shock to see you when we thought the Death Eaters still had you."

"She…Hermione didn't find someone else because she didn't think she'd see me again, did she?"

"Now Blaise, I know you know Hermione better than that. She loves you more than life itself. She told me that she couldn't stop thinking about you. I even had to give her some Dreamless Sleeping Drought for a while after you were captured so that she could sleep. It's just shock, she'll get over it. Now, shut up and take your own Dreamless sleep potion. I'll wake you when it's time for dinner." She instructed him, a tone of finality in her voice that caused him to chuckle before he took the goblet that was handed to him and drank it all. Moments later, he slipped into a deep slumber.

As Hermione closed the door to the infirmary, she leaned against the door and slipped to the ground, completely becoming overwhelmed by tears. 'He's back! My Blaise is back' she said to herself, quietly. She sat there against the door for several minutes, just crying. When she heard the bell ring signifying the end of the day rung, she got up and straightened herself up before she went to dinner. 


	4. Chapter 4: Surprises

Chapter 4: Surprises

"Hermione, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm just fine professor McGonagall, why do you ask?"

"I think you know why I ask. You have a right to be happy, and to continue to do so, you need to go to him and catch up."

"You will be excused from any professorial and head-of-Gryffindor-house duties tonight." The headmistress interrupted before Hermione could ask.

"Thank you so much professor." Getting up, she tossed her napkin on her hardly touched plate and rushed out the doors, and rushed to the Hospital wing.

"Ginny! Is it almost dinner? I'm starving!" came an irritated voice from behind a curtain that was welcoming to Hermione as she came through the doors, trying to catch her breath from running the entire way from the Great Hall.

"So dramatic you are, yes Blaise, dinner is ready! But you have to remember that you aren't the only patient in this ward." She replied irritably, expression softening when she was Hermione standing nearby, arms crossed with a large, Slytherin-worthy, smirk on her face.

"Is it alright if I take his food tray to him, Gin?" Hermione whispered, coming closer to the visibly disgruntled nurse.

"Be my guest," she replied, "he's been a pest since you left."

This caused Hermione to silently chuckle. Shaking her head, "that's Blaise" she said in a whisper to Ginny, a smile and a nod coming from the busy witch.

Hermione picked up Blaise's tray from the cart and carefully carried it to his bed.

"It's about time… I thought…"

"You thought you were going to starve?" Hermione finished in his shocked silence at seeing her instead of Ginny.

Turning slightly red, he replied with a yes and started eating while Hermione sat on the edge and watched his feverous eating. 

"I've only been gone for a half an hour and you've already re-made a nuisance of yourself." Hermione commented light heartedly as he began on his second bread roll. Blaise risked choking by laughing and nodding his head in agreement.

"Well, you are going to meet someone who will give you a run for your money, dear."

Swallowing the bite of chicken that was currently in his mouth, he looked up with a quizzical look on his face.

"A Weasley?"

"Not quite. The sooner you finish, the sooner you'll find out. Just don't choke yourself!" she added quickly as he suddenly started bolting down his food like a five year old who was promised a trip to play at the park, if he finished all of his vegetables.

A bit of indigestion and an ok from the relieved nurse later, Hermione and Blaise were down in Hogsmede, preparing to apparate to London from their house.

"Why are we going to London?"

"Because," she paused, trying to pick the right words for what she wanted to say next.

"Because…?"

"Mum and Dad have been worried sick about you and I know they would want to see their only son-in-law alive after three years." She replied, gathering a coat and a scarf for both of them, it being a chilly spring evening.

"Oh, ok. That sounds good to me." He said, smiling as he wrapped his favorite coat and scarf around his body for the first time in three years.

A fraction of a second later, they were at the road in front of her parent's little house in Bath. Walking up the cobblestone path, they were met at the door by her mother rushing out to Blaise and giving him a huge, motherly, hug and a peck on the cheek. Then another bear hug by her father, a conversation breaking between the two men almost immediately. This was good, considering Hermione needed to speak with her mother privately.

"Where is she mum?" She whispered, watching the two men move into the house.

"In your old room, she's been there for three hours. I was about to wake her when Ginny called saying he was back and you were on your way from your house." She whispered back.

"Thanks mum. I'll go and get her. Could you go and wait in the living room with Dad and Blaise?" Hermione requested.

"Alright everyone, how about we all go to the living room to talk while I get us some coffee." Her mom said once they were in the house. "Hermione? Could you get a china set from your room for me?" She added, a nod coming from her daughter.

As her parents immersed Blaise into conversation, Hermione slipped upstairs to her old room to find her two-year-old daughter, Jessica, asleep, peacefully sucking one of her thumbs and a lock of her hair in the other.

"Jessie? Jessie, honey, wake up," she coerced while gently rubbing her daughters back.

She stirred a bit before turning to Hermione and sitting up, rubbing the sleep from her startling indigo eyes. Chuckling at her daughter's dishevelment, Hermione helped wipe some excess drool and curly brownish black hair from her slightly tanned complexion.

"Hi mommy!" The little girl said brightly for just waking up.

"Hi sweetheart. I have a question for you. Do you think you could answer it for me?"

Jessica giggled, "You siwwy mommy. I twy to foe you."

"Alright," she chuckled. "Do you remember that picture of your daddy I showed to you last weekend?" Jessica nodded. "Well, I have a surprise for you. But I need you to be calm, ok? Can you promise that you won't be too crazy?"

"I pwomise I wiwo behave mommy." She said, bouncing up and down on the bed, causing Hermione to laugh.

"Alright, firecracker, I'll hold you to your word."

Grinning, the toddler stood up on the bed, short little arms outstretched, asking for Hermione to pick her up, which she did before heading downstairs.

Down in the living room, Hermione's parents had started a conversation about dental equipment that Blaise seemed fairly interested in. At the bottom of the stairs, she put Jessica down on the ground to walk with her hand in hand.

"Blaise," she interrupted, noticing that she'd interrupted an "intense" conversation about drills, "there's someone I would like you to meet."

Walking around the couch, followed by three sets of eyes, Hermione went to the other side of the coffee table in front of the three people. On the other side, she knelt down next to Jessica, "Blaise, this is Jessica. Jessica," she said, facing her daughter, "this is your daddy."

Turning wide-eyed, the tot started shaking with excitement, breaking away from her mother and running around the table towards Blaise, shouting "DADDY!"

"Daddy?" he asked, directed towards Hermione, as he picked Jessica up from her launching herself at him.

"Yes, Blaise, you became a daddy about nine months after you disappeared." She said, rubbing her right arm with her left hand, looking at him uncertainly. "I found out the night you were captured."

Blaise looked from Hermione to his daughter, completely lost for words, only to have Jessica break the silence.

"You my daddy, daddy. My name is Jessica Sopia Zabinini. I just turned this many." She said, holding two small fingers up for him to see.

Tears began welling in his eyes as he hugged his daughter tight for the first time, a smile on his face. "It's nice to meet you Jessica Sophia Zabini." 

Later that night, as they set Jessica down for bed after she'd fallen asleep in Blaise's arms on the couch, he asked Hermione as they watched Jessica sleep, "Why didn't you tell me when I woke up that I had a baby girl?"

"Because," she started, "you just got home, needed your rest and I wanted her to be a surprise."

The grandfather clock on the wall chimed nine o'clock, which caused both of them to jump.

"Well," Hermione said after composing herself after the shock, "I think it's time we turn in also, don't you?"

"Yeah." He answered. Before they left Jessica's room, heading to the spare, Blaise said, "Hermione?"

"Yes?" she replied, turning around to find Blaise looking back at Jessica sleeping on her bed.

"I'm glad you didn't tell me about Jessica when I woke up."

"Why is that?"

"Because I feel like it makes me appreciate her that much more." He replied as he faced her, seeing tears in her eyes, which surprised him. "Hermione, why are you crying?!"

"Because I'm so glad you're back!" she said as he moved to embrace her. "I missed you so much."

"Shh, it's ok Hermione," he reassured her as he stroked her head while she sobbed into his shoulder, "I'm not going anywhere anymore"

The End

**A/N: I would greatly appreciate it if you review and let me know what you think )**


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